Globalisation

Revenge porn hits 'one in five' Australians. Image copyright Getty Images One in five Australians has suffered image-based abuse, according to the nation's most comprehensive study on "revenge porn".

The national survey of more than 4,200 people found that men and women were equally likely to be targeted. A fifth had had nude or sexual images taken without their permission, while 11% said images of them had been distributed without consent. The results showed abuse was even more rife than thought, researchers said. Men were more likely to be perpetrators, while women held greater fears for their own safety, according to the study by RMIT University and Monash University. Rapid change The risk of victimisation was higher for minority groups including indigenous, disabled and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) Australians.

The researchers recommended making image-based abuse a federal crime and creating a helpline similar to one established in the UK in 2015.
Social media giants 'shamefully far' from tackling illegal content. Image copyright Getty Images Social media firms are "shamefully far" from tackling illegal and dangerous content, says a parliamentary report.

Hate speech, terror recruitment videos and sexual images of children all took too long to be removed, said the Home Affairs Select Committee report. It called for a review of UK laws and stronger enforcement around illegal material. And the government should consider making the sites pay to help police what people post, it said. The cross-party committee took evidence from Facebook, Twitter and Google, the parent company of YouTube, for its report.
Viewpoint: Is inequality about to get unimaginably worse?
Image copyright Getty Images.

Warning over fake celebrity accounts targeting children. Image copyright Getty Images Law enforcement officers have been warning BBC Trending radio about a growing number of social media accounts wrongly purporting to be teen idols like Harry Styles and Justin Bieber, speaking inappropriately to young children.

The growing world of social media apps with big teenage audiences has made the situation even more difficult to police, they say. "Identity assumption by child sex offenders is increasing quite steadily," Detective Inspector Jon Rouse, who runs task force Argos, a specialist branch responsible for tackling online child exploitation in Queensland, Australia, told us.
Spear-phishing scammer demanded sex show. Image copyright Getty Images Six weeks ago, a young woman called Zed (not her real name) was in a meeting at work when a message popped up on Facebook Messenger from a distant friend.

"Hey babe," it began. The friend asked Zed to vote for her in an online modelling competition, which she agreed to do. But then - disaster. Adding her email address to the competition register had caused a tech meltdown, her friend said.
A guided tour of the cybercrime underground. One of the strange features of cybercrime is how much of it is public.

A quick search will turn up forums and sites where stolen goods, credit cards and data are openly traded. But a glance into those places may not give you much idea about what is going on. "Everyone can join as long as you speak Russian," said Anton, a malware researcher at security firm Sentinel One, who has inhabited this underground world for more than 20 years. "By Russian I mean the USSR, so there is Ukrainians, there is Kazakhstan, there is Belarus. The Romanians are doing all the dirty work like spam and maintenance so they are not really involved in developing malware," he said.
How smartphones became ‘eyes’ for blind people.

Italy's Tiziana: Tragedy of a woman destroyed by viral sex videos. It probably took no more than a few seconds for Tiziana Cantone to begin the sequence of events that led to her suicide.

In April 2015, the 31-year-old from Mugnano, on the outskirts of Naples, sent a series of sex videos to five people via WhatsApp. The recipients included her boyfriend Sergio Di Palo, with whom she had an unstable relationship. The videos showed her performing sex acts with a number of unidentified men. "She was beautiful but fragile," remembers Teresa Petrosino, a friend for 15 years. "She was with the wrong people at the wrong time.
" The videos were soon shared and uploaded to several adult websites.
I'm 26 years old and want nothing to do with social media - BBC Three. Facebook lurking makes you miserable, says study. Image copyright iStock Too much Facebook browsing at Christmas - and seeing all those "perfect" families and holiday photos - is more likely to make you miserable than festive, research suggests.

A University of Copenhagen study suggests excessive use of social media can create feelings of envy. It particularly warns about the negative impact of "lurking" on social media without connecting with anyone. The study suggests taking a break from using social media. The study of more than 1,000 participants, mostly women, says that "regular use of social networking such as Facebook can negatively affect your emotional well-being and satisfaction with life".
Orlando shooting relatives sue social media giants. Image copyright Daniel Munoz/Getty The families of three men who were killed in the Orlando nightclub massacre have filed a lawsuit against Facebook, Twitter and Google (YouTube) alleging that the firms provided "material support" to the so-called Islamic State.

In their lawsuit, relatives of Juan Ramon Guerrero Tevin Crosby, Javier Jorge-Reyes and Juan Ramon Guerrrero, assert that the user-generated platforms aided in the radicalisation of gunman Omar Mateen. Mateen pledged allegiance to IS before he attacked Pulse, a gay nightclub in June - 49 people were killed, in what has been described as the worst mass shooting in recent US history.
100 Women 2016: How women are winning online. Image copyright Change.org Women are more likely to be successful with online campaigns than men, according to one international petition site.

Change.org has found that although men start more petitions, women 'win' their campaigns 14% more often than men do. Men are 38% more likely to start a petition, despite 57% of the users on Change.org being women. However, women achieve one-and-a-half more signatures on their petitions than men do. Why do women win more than men? Change.org is one of many digital petition sites now online, including the UK Parliament site which launched last year.

How innocent photos of children have been exploited on Twitter. Image copyright iStock Despite attempts by social networks to clamp down on child porn, some Twitter users have been swapping illegal images and have used tweets to sexualise otherwise innocent photos. They begin as innocuous selfies or pictures taken by friends or family members.
Facebook fake news: Zuckerberg details plans to combat problem. Image copyright Reuters Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has outlined plans for how he hopes to combat fake news on the site. Facebook became mired in controversy after some users complained fake news changed the outcome of the US election. Mr Zuckerberg posted details of several projects to "take misinformation seriously", including methods for stronger detection and verification. He previously responded to criticism of fake news on Facebook by saying over 99% of its content was "authentic". 'I write fake news that gets shared on Facebook' Can you spot the fake stories?

Facebook fake news row: Mark Zuckerberg is a politician now. Image copyright Getty Images. Children see 'worrying' amount of hate speech online. Image copyright Thinkstock One in three internet users between the ages of 12 and 15 say they saw "hate speech" online in the past year, according to Ofcom's latest survey of children's media habits.

It is the first time the UK regulator has posed a question about the topic in its annual study. The NSPCC charity said the finding was "very worrying", adding such posts should not be tolerated. The report also indicates children are spending more hours a week on the net.
BBC World Service announces biggest expansion 'since the 1940s'
The BBC World Service will launch 11 new language services as part of its biggest expansion "since the 1940s", the corporation has announced. The expansion is a result of the funding boost announced by the UK government last year. The new languages will be Afaan Oromo, Amharic, Gujarati, Igbo, Korean, Marathi, Pidgin, Punjabi, Telugu, Tigrinya, and Yoruba. The first new services are expected to launch in 2017. "This is a historic day for the BBC, as we announce the biggest expansion of the World Service since the 1940s," said BBC director general Tony Hall.

"The BBC World Service is a jewel in the crown - for the BBC and for Britain.
The rise and rise of fake news. Image copyright iStock. Five pictures that show how social media can be a minefield. Sex, honour, shame and blackmail in an online world. A BBC investigation has found that thousands of young women in conservative societies across North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia are being shamed or blackmailed with private and sometimes sexually explicit images.
Future - Does globalization mean we will become one culture?